Liquid crystal monomers, also known as reactive mesogens, allow for molecular alignment to be controlled and for this alignment to be captured through photo-polymerization to form densely cross-linked, ordered polymer networks. Reactive mesogen polymers may be used in a range of applications including, but not limited to, responsive microstructures for electro-optical switches, geometrical and optical anisotropic colloids, thermally reactive polymer films, and optical filters.